--- title: Stephen Colbert Appears on the Ed Sullivan Theater Marquee Early description: Stephen Colbert is set to debut as the host of the Late Show on September 8 canonical: https://time.com/3946602/ed-sullivan-theater-marquee-gets-an-unexpected-makeover/ author: Jacob Koffler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-06T15:49:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:21:47.774Z og:title: Ed Sullivan Theater Marquee Gets An Unexpected Makeover og:description: Featuring a little help from Stephen Colbert og:url: https://time.com/3946602/ed-sullivan-theater-marquee-gets-an-unexpected-makeover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ed Sullivan Theater Marquee Gets An Unexpected Makeover twitter:description: Featuring a little help from Stephen Colbert twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Ed Sullivan Theater Marquee Gets An Unexpected Makeover by [Jacob Koffler](https://time.com/author/jacob-koffler/) ## Jacob Koffler Jul 6, 2015 3:49 PM UTC by [Jacob Koffler](https://time.com/author/jacob-koffler/) ## Jacob Koffler Jul 6, 2015 3:49 PM UTC The world-famous Ed Sullivan Theater marquee, which has displayed “The Late Show with David Letterman” since 1993, has gotten an unexpected makeover. The theater is busy preparing for Stephen Colbert’s debut on the _Late Show_ stage in September, but CBS didn’t want renovations hampering business for their long-time neighbor, Angelo’s Pizza. Instead, a new marquee was unveiled on Monday featuring a reclining Colbert chomping down on some pizza and letting pedestrians know that Angelo’s is open during renovations. The best part? CBS offered it free of charge. “They moved the old marquee down and it looked like a dead place,” Alex Kondilis, the restaurant’s manager, told TIME. “They offered to do that for free, just to help us.” This is surely just a little taste of what Colbert has in store. He is set to start hosting the _Late Show_ on September 8. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3946602/ed-sullivan-theater-marquee-gets-an-unexpected-makeover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3946602/ed-sullivan-theater-marquee-gets-an-unexpected-makeover/"},"headline":"Ed Sullivan Theater Marquee Gets An Unexpected Makeover","datePublished":"2015-07-06T15:49:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:21:47.774Z","description":"Stephen Colbert puts in an early appearance","url":"https://time.com/3946602/ed-sullivan-theater-marquee-gets-an-unexpected-makeover/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","stephen colbert"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jacob Koffler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jacob-koffler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3946602/ed-sullivan-theater-marquee-gets-an-unexpected-makeover/","name":"Ed Sullivan Theater Marquee Gets An Unexpected Makeover"}}]}] ```